Heel-blank separator



March 18 1924.

N. HATTE'NBACH v I HEEL BLANK SEPARATOR Original Filed sin. 20. 1919 Patented Mar. 1%, i924,

rnrur OFFICE.

NATE HATIENBAGH, 0F COLUTKEUS, OHIO, ASSIGNOB T0 BRCGKTON HEEL COMPANY,

Inc, or nnoon'ron, nassncnusnr'rs,

A GQBPOBATION 0F IvIASSAGHUSETTS.

HEEL-BLANK SEPARATOR.

Application filed September 20, 1919, Serial K0. 325,201. Renewed February 1, 1924.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NATE HATTENBAGH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented new and use ful Improvements in Heel-Blank Separators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has its utility in connection with the manufacture of heels in a chute, as described in the patent to W. P. Bosworth, No. 1,193,756, dated August 8, 1916.. According to. the method set forth in said patent, lifts are assembled to build heels in a mold at the operators bench, are successively forced through the mold into a chute which extends downwardly therefrom, and are progressively propelled throughout the length of the chute by the pressure exerted in building subsequent heels and forcing them into the chute in like manner. As is well understood, the purpose of building heels in this manner is to cause them to be compressed immediately uponcompletion, and to remain under pressure withoutmaterial relaxation until the adhesive with which the lifts have been coated has become firm enough to avoid all danger of the lifts separating or slipping one upon another. The heels thus propelled finally emerge from the end of the chute and drop into receptacles provided to receive them. It is the purpose and object of this invention to effect a sure separation of the heels one from another as they emerge from the chute, and

to destroy the efiect of any adhesive which may have entered between adjacent heels to fasten them together.

It sometimes happens that, from one.

cause or another, enough of the glue or paste which is used in the heel-building operation extends between adjacent heels in the chute to cause a light adhesion of one heel to another, and that in consequence, when the heels emerge from the chute, groups of two or more of them come out stuck together. While the use of paste repellant parting layers, described in the aforesaid Bosworth patent, prevents such adhesion from being especially dificult to destroy, yet the fact that light adhesion of this sort does occur from time to time makes further handling of the heels necessary to ensure that they will be broken apart. That is, it occasions an additional operation. My invention makes such an operation unnecessary, by insuring separation of all the heels from one another at the time of their ejection-from the" chute. It accomplishes this efiect in the manner and by the means substantially as described in the following specification and illustrated in the drawing supplied therewith.

ln' said drawing:

Figure 1 is an elevation illustrating the usual arrangement of the' heel-receiving chute, as used in factories employing the method of building heels briefly above out Figures 2, 3 and 4 are sectional views on an enlarged scale of the discharge end of the chute, illustrating the manner in which each heel, when ejected, is separated from the one next following it, s

v Figure 5 is a cross sectionof the chute, on the line 5-5 of Figure 1, but being drawn on approximately the same scale as Figures 2, 3 and l.

Like reference characters indicate the .same parts in all of the figures.

In Figure 1, a, represents as a whole the chute in which newly built heels are confined while the adhesive is setting and hardening, and throughwhich they are gradually propelled as additional heels are added to those already placed in the chute. As commonly installed in. heel factories, thesechutes are placed more or less nearly vertical, and extend from an upper to a lower. floor of the building, sometimes through two or more stories. This condition is illustrated in Figure 1, where 7) represents a floor, through which the chute passes. The upper end of the chute rises to the level of the table at which the operator builds, heels, and is in register with the opening in a mold wherein the heels are assembled, and from which they are expelled by a presser which the operator forces down upon them after building each heel.

As ordinarily constructed, these chutes are made offour angle strips,,1, 2, 3 and 4, arranged substantially as shown in Figure 5, those at the back of the heel being supplied with recessed filler bars 5 to fit the curved outline of the rear part of the heels.

The strips are pressed together by means such as spring bands 0, formed preferably as stifi helical springs wrapped around the chute and their ends hooked together under tension. Filler pieces d are placed between the springs and the outer surfaces of the angle strips.

The angle bars at the extremity of the chute are arranged so'that they may be spread apart, and this is preferably accomplished by making the extremities of these bars as separate pieces, swivelled or pivoted to the members of the chute, whereof'they are respectively extensions. In Figure 1, I have illustrated the bars of the lower or terminal section a of the chute as connected to the upper part thereof by couplings e, such as illustrated in the Bosworth patent aforesaid, which permit such a movement as that described, and theymay be suitably attached in any other desired manner.

The only essential character of spreading movement required is that the two bars at one side of a median line of the heel should be movable away from the opposite two bars against yielding resistance, and should be drawn together by powerful spring pressure. Preferably, and in order to get the best results, I provide that the bars 1 and 2, which engage the back of the heels, should be those movable away from and toward the bars 3 and 4 which engage the breast ends of the heels. As already intimated, any mode of mounting or connection of the bars of the chute which permits the extremities thereof to be thus moved relatively to one another may be adopted and used Without departure from the invention or from the scope of pro tection which I claim therefor.

The bars 3 and 4 are longer than the bars 1 and 2. That is, they extend beyond the plane transverse to the chute where or in which the bars 1 and 2 terminate, and to the extensions of the bars 3 and 4 are secured wedges or cams f, having inclined faces on the sides toward the bars 1 and 2, which are inclined downwardly and toward the latter bars. These inclined faces extend substantially to the longitudinal inner faces of the bars 3 and 4, and theblocks are tapered to fine edges, whereby the breast ends of the heels ride over them in succession.

As the column or pile of heels in the chute descends, the endmost heel, indicated in Figure 2 as 9, when it emerges from the chute rides over the inclined surfaces of the cam blocks 7", thereby spreading the front and rear sides of the chute apart against the resistance of the lowermost binding spring 6, as shown in Figure 3. The pressure thus supplied to the heel 9 tends to displace it horizontally from the heel it next above it, and thereby to break apart any adhesive which may have entered between the heels and become set; and, when the lowest heel has finally emerged from the chute, at which time its rearward displacement is greatest,

then the passing of its rear side from beyond the end of the rear bars releases the latter and allows them to be powerfully and suddenly returned to the normal position. Being thus returned, they strike the next heel h a sudden blow; or, if the next heel should have been displaced with the heel 9, they suddenly apply a powerful pressure thereto, which effectually shears whatever adhesive there may be between the heels and separates them. The heel g is now entirely clear of the chute, and is released from any adhesive attachment to the next heel which may have previously existed, and hence drops by itself into the receptacle. The next heel it, now becomes the endmost heel, goes through the same process upon the next downward step of the heel column in the chute, and is similarly separated from the heel which next follows it; and in this way all the heels are separately ejected, and in being ejected are forcibly separated from the next following heel.

Thus, by means of a simple attachment to already existing apparatus, requiring no additional mechanism and no appreciably greater power for its operation than that customarily expended in building heels in a chute, I have insured a positive and complete separation of each heel from the other heels upon delivery from the chute, and have made it unnecessary either to employ persons to'sort over and separate the heels or to require attention on the part of those operators to whom the heels later come to see to it that all heels are separated from one another.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: r

l. The method of separating heels built in a chute, which consists in propelling the heels lengthwise of the chute toward its delivery end, and applying lateral pressures in opposite directions by the opposite walls of the chute respectively to the endmost heel and the heel next thereto in the chute upon emergence from the chute of said endmost heel.

2. The method of separating from one another heels built in a chute, which consists in propelling the column of such heels lengthwise toward and out of the end of the chute, and causing the opposite walls of the chute to exert pressure laterally in one direction on the endmost heel and in the opposite direction on the next adjacent heel, as the endmost heel passes out of the chute.

3. A chute in which newly made heels, the parts whereof are attached together by adhesive, are confined in a column and through which they are propelled step by step, said chute having an open end and having at one side a wedge element extending from said open end beyond the termination of the opposite wall of the chute and having a heel displacing surface inclined toward the line of the opposite wall in the direction of travel of the heels, arranged to transform the force applied lengthwise of the column for propelling the heels, into lateral pressure in one direction on the endmost heel in the column while the next heel is confined against lateral displacement by the opposite wall, whereby the endrnost heel is displaced laterally with respect to and separated from the next heel of the column.

4. A chute in which heels are confined in a column and from which they are propelled by steps, said chute having opposite sides separable one from the other against yielding resistance, and one of said sides projecting beyond the termination of the other at the outlet end and having an inclined displacing element facing toward the other side, arranged and adapted to displace the emerging endmost heel laterally with respect to the superposed pile of heels.

5. A chute adapted to contain a series of heels arranged face to face with one another, said chute having opposite sides separate from one another and one of such sides being movable toward and away from the other, spring means tending to draw said sides together but permittin relative separation of the sides against yiel ing resistance, and a wedge connected to one of the sides and having a surface extending at an inclination in the direction of progression of the heels and toward the opposite side of the chute whereby said wedge is adapted to effect a lateral separation of the heels from one another as they emerge.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

NATE HATTENBACH. 

